Antique books offer glimpse into church's past

EXETER — The Exeter Historical Society and First Baptist Church have been good neighbors for some time.

Lara Bricker

EXETER — The Exeter Historical Society and First Baptist Church have been good neighbors for some time.

They share the same driveway. They have both offered shelter to each other when their respective furnaces died one year apart. Most recently these neighbors became partners in a history project of interest to both of them.

It all began in that shared driveway where Historical Society Curator Barbara Rimkunas met up with the church's pastor the Rev. Deanna Swilling one afternoon.

Mare Booksellers had contacted the church in September of 2012 with news that they had acquired two books dated from the 1800s that appeared to be from the library of the First Baptist Church of Exeter.

"Since we are a historic church that seeks to be relevant to today's culture and needs but also honors our rich history we immediately replied and began a conversation," Swilling said, adding the books had just been donated to the church when she saw Rimkunas that day in their shared driveway and invited her to take a look. "She asked if she could take them back to her office for more extensive investigation and possible transcription."

Back at the historical society building, Rimkunas approached volunteer Mark Willis about taking on the project. Willis retired to Greenland following a career as a diplomat for the U.S. State Department. He'd always had an interest in early American history which led him to become a regular volunteer at the Exeter Historical Society. He'd done one previous transcription project in Maryland and was eager to lend his experience.

"It's a way of really having the focus on the record," he said. "I enjoy it."

The Baptist church was one of the earliest churches in Exeter. The First Parish Church, now known as the Congregational Church of Exeter, was founded in 1638. A second church was formed in 1755 by some of the membership of the First Parish Church.

The First Baptist Church of Exeter was founded on Oct. 7, 1800, when an Ecclesiastic Council convened at Exeter with representatives from the churches of Haverhill, Massachusetts, Newton, Brentwood and New Rowley, New Hampshire. The moderator of the meeting was Hezekiah Smith known for being a major player in bringing the Calvinist Baptist movement to New England.

"The thing that strikes me the most about the church was it was based on people having a religious experience, being born again," Willis said. "They had to testify to a religious experience."

There have been three locations of the Baptist church in town. The first was on Spring Street, the second was in the area that later housed an opera house and the current location at the corner of Spring and Front streets.

Willis began his project in October of 2012 and over the next nine months spent countless hours going through the records. He began by transcribing the records by hand. Once he had the records in his own penmanship, he typed them into his computer.

"It's kind of like a detective story for me," he said. "It's opened up a whole new world for me."

He only transcribed the records by hand for short periods of time to ensure complete accuracy.

"When you're doing transcription, there's no point in doing it if it's not exact," he said.

Willis had to decipher clues in old books, such as whether people mentioned were the same ones mentioned previously or a new person with the same name. There were multiple spellings of some names, such as Janvrin and Connor.

He was fascinated by trying to figure out the relationships between people while also piecing together the history of the church. But clues were scarce as most of the record focused on baptisms and marriages.

"The children just didn't feature in it," Willis said. "It's tied in with the focus on adult baptism."

At that time that the Baptist church was founded, towns decided which church would be the official church of the town, Rimkunas explained. A portion of taxes collected by the town even went to help support the church, which had the town's official clock and bell. While other denominations did eventually crop up around Exeter, initially those members were still paying taxes toward the official church. The Baptist church was incorporated by the New Hampshire Legislature as a religious body in 1818 following efforts to establish a separation of church and state.

Rimkunas pointed out that the First Baptist Church is the first church she has evidence of in Exeter that offered full membership to people regardless of their race.

One part of the record that caught Willis's attention was a split in the church which occurred after a complicated dispute among the membership in 1854. Representatives from nearby Baptist churches in Portsmouth, Great Falls, Dover, Deerfield, Plaistow, Newton, Brentwood and Haverhill were called in by the Exeter church to help mediate the dispute. The council voted on the dispute on Dec. 7, 1854 which led to a major change for the church. Between one quarter to one-third of the members left to form the Elm Street Baptist Church.

The records of the 1854 offer a glimpse of several interesting personalities including educator Elbridge Dalton, who was among those who broke off, and assistant church clerk and Sunday school teacher Amos Nudd. Nudd, who was the main note taker for the church during the conflict, was eventually dismissed by the church in the fall of 1855.

Willis's careful transcription is now typed and bound in two books, with one copy for the church and one copy for the historical society's records.

"We are very excited to receive the results and eager to read his transcription," Swilling said. "It will be exciting to match up dates and names with those mentioned in other records and shed more light on our own history."

Swilling praised the cooperative nature of the project from the bookseller to the historical society.

"It reminds us that not only do we share our lives, and our gifts, but that history belongs to all of us and how good it is to share," Swilling said. "It is very good to have such good friends in our own backyard.

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